We're Sorry, Gilligan
by ChocolateChipCookie32
Summary: One shot that takes place during You've Been Disconnected. When Gilligan exhausts himself from looking in the lagoon for hours, the Castaways realize how unfairly they treat him, and set out to make things better.


Gilligan was getting tired. He had been searching the lagoon for hours, trying to find the lost cable. The Skipper was not making this easy on him. A storm was coming, and he had covered the cables so they wouldn't get ruined. They ended up being taken out to sea. Gilligan felt he did the right thing covering them up, but no. As usual, the others all ganged up on him. It was becoming a trend. Something bad happens, blame Gilligan. The first mate didn't understand why they were always so hard with him. Yes, there were times he messed up, he admitted it. He was far from perfect, but then there were plenty of other times where he didn't mess up, but still got blamed, anyway.

It wasn't fair! Gilligan was exhausted! He was about ready to pass out from hunger. His head was spinning.

"He's had enough, Skipper," a voice said from behind him.

It was the Professor. The Professor had been angry too, but he could see how tired the young sailor was getting.

"He's fine, Professor," Skipper replied, crossing his arms.

Gilligan was about to say something, when he collapsed into the water.

"GILLIGAN!" The Howells, and the girls shouted at the same time.

The Skipper, taking action, quickly went into the water and carried his first mate out and lay him gently down in the sand. Everyone gathered around him.

"Little buddy, are you all right," the Skipper asked in concern.

"I'm- dizzy."

"It's no wonder, Gilligan," the Professor said. "You've been searching in that lagoon for hours. You haven't had any food or water. I think you've been punished enough. The cable's lost. Come on, let's get you back to camp."

The Skipper didn't argue. Neither did the rest of the Castaways.

"Let's take him to our hut," Mrs. Howell said, in a motherly tone. She truly loved the boy like a son.

"Good idea, dear," replied her husband. "We'll clean him up, and he can borrow a pair of my pajamas."

The others let the Howells take Gilligan to their hut to clean him up. Mary Ann immediately started on dinner. It had been a while since any of them had eaten, and she knew Gilligan was probably starving! Ginger offered to help.

Meanwhile, the Skipper and the Professor sat at the communale table.

"I feel awful," the Skipper said, removing his captain's hat and scratching his head.

"So do I, Skipper. I was thinking. Even if Gilligan hadn't covered those cables, the rain would have ruined them, anyway. Gilligan didn't know that they would get swept out to sea. I think we were too hard on him this time."

"It wouldn't be the first time," Mary Ann said, setting the table.

"What do you mean, Mary Ann," Skipper asked.

"Well, think about it, Skipper. How often have we blamed Gilligan for stuff that wasn't even his fault?"

The sea captain thought about this and realized that the farm girl was right. Not everything was Gilligan's fault.

"Remember when I set that stuff next to Gilligan's food and told him to keep eating? He ate it. We got angry. I was at fault for that one," the Professor said, thinking back.

"We need to be nicer to him," Ginger said. "Like that time we were going to force him to marry a woman he didn't love just so we could get off the island."

"Well, let's be fair here, Ginger. Gilligan had no problem when he thought it was me that Native girl was interested in," the Skipper said, in a defensive tone.

"True, but he didn't know that there would be all kinds of dangerous tests, like throwing knives. Had he known that, he probably wouldn't have asked you to do it."

Before any more could be said, the Howells walked up.

"He's sleeping right now," Mr. Howell said. "We told him we'd wake him up for dinner. We gave him some water."

"We really do treat that poor boy unfairly," said Mrs. Howell.

From that moment on, the group decided they were going to be a lot nicer to Gilligan. The Skipper said he was going to give him the week off from work. Mary Ann said she was going to bake a coconut cream pie just for him, and he didn't have to share it if he didn't want to. The Professor said he would ask Gilligan to help him with his experiments, for he knew Gilligan liked to help.

Ginger said she would put on a play just for him. It would be dedicated to him. The Howells said for a week they would serve Gilligan, instead of having him serve them.

They all vowed from that moment on to take responsibility for their own actions, and to stop blaming Gilligan for everything that went wrong. When Gilligan woke up from his nap, the Howells had brought him his dinner on a tray. He said he was feeling better after his nap, but the Howells insisted that he stay in bed and just rest.

After dinner was finished, all of the Castaways came in to tell him how sorry they were. Gilligan accepted their apologies, and apologized himself for the times he did goof up. They accepted his apology, too.

They were a family and vowed to always look after each other until they were rescued.

THE END


End file.
